Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Relax and Eat: Kwan Kee Sun, head chef and part owner of Emperor's Garden Restaurant, shows a sampling of the restaurant's dishes including szechuan beef and double mushroom with shrimp and Chinese greens.
Emperor's Garden brings Chinese cuisine to WG
By Susan Wiedmann
Twelve years ago Lai-Fong Vo and her cousin Kee Sun Kwan opened the Emperor's Garden Restaurant on Lincoln Avenue, bringing their own authentic Chinese cuisine to Willow Glen. Today Willow Glen diners continue to make the restaurant a neighborhood success.
Vo says the restaurant's name was chosen to suggest a place of relaxation that Chinese emperors revered. Just inside the front door of the Emperor's Garden Restaurant, a lush 7-foot-high dracaena and other healthy plants serve as a privacy screen, while Vo's "lucky bamboo" plants thrive in prominent settings all around the large room. Chinese music plays softly overhead throughout the restaurant, adding to the soothing ambiance.
Kwan is the main chef, while Vo takes care of the other restaurant responsibilities, such as greeting their customers, many of whom she has known for years from living in Willow Glen with her husband and son.
"I like to talk to the people," Vo says. "I like to serve them with my food and make them happy."
The two have used their combined knowledge of Chinese recipes to create a substantial menu. Both Vo and Kwan say the main reasons for the longtime success of the restaurant are the high quality and variety of the dishes. They even include some old family recipes, such as Chinese cabbage and seafood deluxe with meat sauce, lover's shrimps and dried sauteed string beans with meat sauce.
Vo's parents taught her to cook Cantonese dishes in her homeland of Hong Kong, and Kwan learned to cook Szechuan and Hunan cuisine in Chicago, where his father was a chef in a large Chinese restaurant. Vo explains that Cantonese-style food emphasizes the natural flavor of fresh food, without lots of seasonings, whereas Peking, Hunan and Szechuan-style flavors range from spicy to very hot.
Many of their Willow Glen customers, she says, especially like spicy entrees such as eggplant with garlic sauce, Mongolian beef and Hunan chicken. But the milder Cantonese dishes are popular as well. A special daily lunch menu includes a soup of the day, chicken salad, fried won tons, a choice of fried rice, steamed rice or chow mein, plus one entree from beef, pork, chicken, seafood or vegetable selections.
The Emperor's Garden Restaurant offers seasonal specials, about which Vo personally informs her customers rather than depending on a blackboard list or menu insert. She points out that the restaurant does not prepare food that is greasy and that MSG is used in only a couple of dishes or not used at all, upon request. They will also customize the ingredients in certain dishes for their customers.
"You've got to treat customers nicely, then you have a business," Kwan says matter-of-factly. Both he and Vo work seven days a week, with the help of six employees, taking some time off if a special occasion arises.
The Emperor's Garden Restaurant also offers take-out food, party platters and catering. Wine and beer are available.
Emperor's Garden Restaurant, 1181 Lincoln Ave. Lunch: Sunday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Dinner: Sunday to Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 4:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. For more information, call (408) 286-9068.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
